Anthropological Approaches to Psychological Medicine

Written predominantly for those working in the mental health services, this book aims to extend the theory and practice of psychiatry. The chapters explore the culture of psychiatry as well as seeking to reaffirm the importance of anthropology for understanding psychiatric practice and psychological disorders in both socio-historical and individual contexts. The development and use of psychiatric diagnostic categories, the nature of expressed emotion within cross-cultural contexts and the religious context of perceptions of pathological behaviour are all refracted through an anthropological perspective. The second part of this book focuses clinical applications.